pin·stros·i·ty
\pin-ˈsträ-sə-tē\: 1. a pin of great and often frightening size, force, or complexity. 2. A real life result of a pin.
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Friday, May 11, 2012

Not-so-Lucky Cookies

I think most of us Pinterest users are guilty of looking at a pin and jumping into a project without reading the original post because we know we know how to do that. Sometimes it works...sometimes it doesn't. Angela sent us in a Pinstrosity she had while trying to make these yummy Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies just from the picture.

Angela tells us, "We host an annual St. Patrick's Day party and this year I thought I would simplify dessert (don't even ask about the year of the chunky chocolate fountain) and make green chocolate chip cookies."

I really want to ask about the year of the chunky chocolate fountain. That sounds like a great story. Anyway...she continues:

"They were green in the mixing bowl, green going on the cookie sheet, but came out brown with a sickly green tinge."

The Pinstrosity

"What went wrong? Honestly, I did not even click through to the recipe from the original pin. Instead I used a recipe for "The best chocolate chip cookies ever" from one of my recipe books that I had been wanting to try, plus a liberal dose of food coloring - egged on by my kids to "USE MORE!." Either there was some critical step in the original recipe that I didn't know about or else they photographed them before baking!"

We checked things out in the original recipe and came across what we think went wrong for Angela. Angela used a regular chocolate chip cookie recipe, but the original recipe actually has you make chocolate chip sugar cookies. There's the issue right there. For some reason (and I don't know the chemistry of it yet) regular ol' chocolate chip cookies just don't take to food coloring (I've learned this one through past experiences), but sugar cookies do. So to get that great green color and not the sickly green tint, you should probably make sugar cookies. Either that or throw in A LOT of food coloring in your chocolate chip cookies (but then you get the weird food coloring taste).

15 comments:

I've made this with great success and failures. If you follow the recipe and use the store bought sugar cookie mix and follow the rest of the directions, they are wonderful cookies that look like the original picture. (I used Betty Crocker) I've tried it with a couple of homemade sugar cookie recipes and I haven't liked the results nearly as well. As far as I can tell from trial and error you have to use the mix and not over bake them.

The reason for the brown is something called a Malliard reaction. It's basically what makes onions caramelize better when you add baking soda. Caramelization occurs when you have an alkaline pH - mainly baking soda. If you added some lemon juice to these or lots of cream of tartar, they would brown MUCH less and your green would shine through!

...also you have to take them out before the edges start browning. Don't be afraid that they are under done. We are used to cookie recipes telling us to remove them when they are "golden brown" or the "edges turn golden." I have also noticed that any sort of batter coloring that has a yellow in it will brown like this. Greens, yellows, oranges, etc.

Our, very simple (and cheaper-mint extract is expensive!!!) way to make mint chocolate chip cookies goes like this: take normal chocolate chip cookie recipe, except switch out the regular chocolate chips with Andes mint chips. You can find them in the same aisle as the chocolate chips or crush up Andes mints. They taste awesome and no need to worry about food coloring! (Though you can add it if you want to!)

I've made yummy green cookies/mint chocolate chip cookies with great success, but it was with boxed CAKE mix as a base. I used one box of Pillsbury white cake mix, 2 large eggs, 1/2 cup butter, and 2 tbs of vanilla extract. To turn them minty, do 1 tbs vanilla extract and 1/4-1/2 tbs peppermint extract (a little goes a long way!). To turn it green, only add 4-5 drips of green food dye. Baking 8-10 minutes at 350, and they came out perfectly pale green! It's super good to break up Andes mints and mix them in, too!

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